Starseeker

[Hiver]

The inside of the runabout was... trashed. There had been fighting.

I glanced down at the tricorder, focusing the scanning on just the small ship. That's much clearer... one lifesign, human, forward compartment.

Erratic but strong lifesigns.

"Hello? I'm Lieutenant Star. Are you alright?" I called out, slowly moving through the small cargo bay, "We are here to rescue you?"

Jumping over a fallen cargo container, I almost landed in a pool of green fluid.

I frowned and knelt down, running my tricorder over it.

Vulcan blood.

Well, that's not a good sign.

"Captain. My avatar has run into definite signs of violence inside the runabout. I have one human lifesign in the piloting compartment. Proceeding further in."

"You can't get a lock on the lifesign?" Mason asked thoughtfully.

"Not safely without a transponder."

With that, I continued over to the closed door to the living section of the small ship and shifted the phaser in my right hand to press the button while also relaying the same information to Shran.

Nothing.

That's strange, it should have power even with the small ship shut down. Putting the tricorder back into my belt, I knelt down again to pull a fallen container out of the way only to see a hole in the service hatch so I quickly pulled it away.

Like I thought, it was dead. No power... and somebody had shot the manual release.

The hell?

Fine then.

Backing up, I flipped my phaser to full power and took aim where I knew the locking mechanism was before I shot the hatch three times.

Thumbing the phaser back to heavy stun, I dug my fingers into the edge and pulled hard, slowly forcing it open.

The inside of the small living compartment was smoky, but that was just to be expected considering I just melted parts of the hatch.

I glanced down at my left hand and sighed.

Damn, need to redo the surface layers on the fingertips. They simply were not as durable as my structural elements and had torn slightly where I gripped the door.

The door to the cockpit was open, some light shooting in through the windows, partly lighting up the area.

"Hello?" I called out ahead, pulling out my tricorder. The human lifesign should be somewhere around here.

That's when somebody burst out from the cockpit, screaming bloody murder.

Not that it was too fast for me to react.

He was covered in blood, both his own and others, both red and green. Other than the blood, he was naked.

He was wielding a heavy metal pipe in his hands and swinging it up for a powerful strike as he screamed his head off.

I took a quarter or so second to take this in, comparing him to personnel records of the away team.

Doctor Anderson. Xenobiology, specialization in botany.

What in the world happened to him?

Before he had even emerged fully from the doorway I raised my phaser and shot him in the chest and he folded like a sack of potatoes, falling and coming to a stop by my feet, out for the count.

I quickly knelt down and did a tricorder scan.

His vitals was weak but stable.

"Captain." I reported, "I have found a... survivor. There is something really strange going on here and I would like to recommend a level five quarantine in sickbay."

Meanwhile I informed the medical personnel and Shran of the same things.

Janeway and Mason shared a worried look before he nodded, "Beam him up as soon as quarantine procedures are in place."

That didn't take long, it mostly involved putting up forcefields and the medical team getting in environmental suits.

A minute later, I put a transporter transponder armband on him and beamed him directly to sickbay.

"Shran to Star, get back out here. We found a body."

"One moment," I answered and entered the cockpit of the runabout. Oh, there was another one. A second human, Ensign Leslie. He was dead.

Damn it. That's almost the entire team. Just one missing.

"I found another. Ensign Leslie is dead as well," I reported to him as I reached to tap the console, turning the runabout back on. Or tried.

The computer had a password lock on it.

What the hell had been going on here?

Well, I didn't have time to try to break it manually. Instead I pulled out a portable datalink I had in my belt and plugged it in and I connected to it to start to hack the thing as I turned and headed back outside, stepping out into the sunshine to see Shran and the rest of the team going over the campsite outside.

"Shran... I believe we have a problem." I said with a frown.

He nodded, "Yeah. Until we are sure whatever the hell happened here is not a biological contamination, we are not going anywhere than possibly a quarantine chamber."




AN// A big barrel of thanks to Avernus for betaing this part.

 

[Hiver]

Chief Medical Officer Alina Abramov rested her head against her hands and sighed, running her hands through her short greying hair. "Star, run a comparative analysis on the alien molecule against the scans taken by the away team during the original survey. Maybe something has changed since then."

"Running analysis now." I answered, starting to go through the data.

Doctor Anderson was sedated under full quarantine procedures. He seemed normal... other than the insane fear, anger and outright rage.

His body was flooded with adrenaline. If just left to his own devices, his heart would explode in a couple of days.

Sedating him was the only way to get him to calm down.

We did find an alien substance in his brain tissue. Well, a lot of it, really. The problem was that we didn't find the corresponding molecule down on the surface around the base site.

Which meant that the current away team that was down there was stuck down there if we couldn't find out whether it was infectious or not and who it could affect. I could beam them up into quarantine, but it was better and just as risky for them to stay down there to help in the investigation.

That included my avatar. I was dreading the decontamination procedure for it, it would take hours to make sure it was completely clean. I might even need to replace the outer layer if we didn't find out what had happened.

"Sorry, doctor. No clear match." I finally reported. "I don't understand how it's possible. Closest is some pollen but it's less than a thirty percent match to the substance."

She shook her head. "It could be anything. Migrant insects, they stopped somewhere along the way and got infected there..."

"Not according to their flightplan or shuttle log." I interjected.

Doctor Abramov motioned in agreement before she continued. "For all we know, it might be something in one specific room in one of those ruins. Can we send down more away teams?"

"We only had ready environmental suits for two more teams. We are making more, but it's taking time, Doctor."

Even if you could replicate the parts, you still needed to put the things together.

She sighed and crossed her arms, looking out the window of her office towards the bed with Doctor Anderson. He was still sedated and trapped behind two levels of forcefields.

"Maybe if..." She started before she frowned in thought. "Could it have been a combination of factors?"

"Two different substances?" I asked. "But it was the only one that showed up as not belonging."

"Yes, but..." the Doctor said and reached to turn on her console. "We have been looking for sources of that molecule, right? What if we have been missing the obvious? Run a comparison between the molecule and human neurotransmitters."

"Running now."

The mood in Shran's awayteam was not the best. They had all given up their weapons to the rest of the away teams and been split up.

One member of the original research team was also missing and if she was as aggressive as Anderson...

I was standing guard on top of the runabout for the best possible field of fire and we had set up a forcefield fence around the campsite.

Hmm? That's interesting...

"Doctor, I think I have found a match. Here," I said and pulled it up on her screen. "Somatostatin is a large part of the molecule. Well, part of Somatostatin."

She frowned. "That don't make much sense. Maybe if..." she said and stapped on her screen. "There. See that?"

"...That's substance part of the pollen we scanned. Or close, it's not a complete match. I'm not sure how I missed that."

"Part of it, at least. They breathed in the pollen, the substance was released into their bloodstream and reacted to their Somatostatin to form a new substance! As for how you missed it, you are not a trained medical professional."


XXXXXXXXXXX


"Good thing is, " Doctor Abramov explained to the senior staff. "It only affect humans. And now that we are aware of the cause, we should be able to find a counter agent. The away team is clear to return from the surface after a decontamination, it's not infectious. The safest thing is to confine Ensign Andrés to sickbay, possibly sedate her until we are able to find that cure. For all we know, it might even flush out of their system completely when they don't get constant new doses of the pollen. Doctor Anderson is already showing significantly lower amounts."

Mason sighed and rubbed his chin. "...Very well. But why didn't the earlier research teams run into this?"

"For several reasons." I answered him, my holographic avatar seemingly sitting in a chair by the table in the briefing room, "Primarily two... location and time. The flower in question seems to have a ten year reproduction cycle and it has not been found anywhere close to the research base."

Commander Janeway looked thoughtful. "Star, arrange the beam ups. Despite your diagnosis, Doctor, I would still prefer if the entire away team, human or not, spent a couple of days in sickbay, just to make sure."

Abramov nodded. "It couldn't hurt, I suppose. I don't think we missed anything, but better safe than sorry."

"What about Ensign Baldrick? Any ideas on how to track her down?" Mason asked. "Star?"

"I'm sorry, sir. None of the away teams have been able to track her. According to the readings on Doctor Anderson, if she is infected as well, she would be dead by now. Her heart would have given out under the strain. If this was a normal world, I might have been able to use my sensors to track for human lifesigns... but that's a big might, sir. Even without the disruption from the local sun, that's a lot of life down there. It's like finding a needle in a needlestack."

He sighed. "Very well. We will continue the search for another twenty-four hours, just in case."




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

As beautiful as the inside of the Dyson sphere was, I could not help but be relieved when the massive door opened and the tractor beams latched on and pulled me outside and it all was over.

Yes, the inside was beautiful, but it limited my scans to the inside of the sphere. I couldn't see a thing outside it. The gravity fields of the sphere even completely scrambled subspace signals.

At least we got the base up and running enough that we could unload everything we had carried for them by the time we left.

"Set course to Deep Space Nine," Captain Mason said as he got up from his chair. "Maximum cruise."

I nodded with a smile as I happily scanned the skies around us. Pinging Starfleet for a information update I quickly plotted the course.

"Course set for Bajoran system. Engaging at Warp seven point five."

...Of course it would be on the wrong side of the fucking sphere...

Jumping to warp three, I started to scoot around the thing without extending my turn radius out too much. As soon as I had a clear line for the Bajor system, I punched it up to Warp Seven point Five.

It was so good to see stars again. Even the feeling of random atoms interacting with my warpfields and giving off small radiation bursts was amazingly pretty.

Even more so than the small 'moving stars' effect in visible light everyone else could see.

"Mister Shran, you have the bridge." Mason ordered and headed for his ready room.

Shran rounded the railing and walked up to sit down in the Captain's chair, looking for all in the world like he did that every day.

I had my hologram glance around at the others manning the other consoles, just for show, before I leaned in, "Like taking the center seat?" I asked him quietly.

He grinned briefly, "One day, I will have my own," as he checked the latest reports from all departments on the screen monitor.

"I don't doubt it."

I really didn't. Yes, he might be a bit... Shran... when off duty, but he really was good at his job. If he didn't have his own command in five years, something, somewhere was very wrong.

Another five years of experience? Age thirty? Yeah, I could see him having his own center chair.

I already had a note in my file for a possible consideration for promotion to Lieutenant-Commander. So did Shran. We were not supposed to know that, but they were entered into my computer after I was installed.

Something Captain Mason knew that I knew. He didn't even use privacy mode on his ready room when doing it. Not that it would have helped as it went through the computer.

Personally, I didn't care overly much. I was a Starship. My rank was equal to the second in command's.

Shran however did show some good instincts during the war. He could lead, hell, he was chief of security.

"Star?"

I shifted attention to a part of the ship I normally actively avoided. The holodecks, in this case specifically, holodeck two. The holodeck computer was a independent system just because I really, really didn't want to know what goes on in there. Also, it made holodeck problems a hell of a lot more interesting as I couldn't tell what was happening beforehand as I would otherwise.

The holodeck is meant to be private without an invitation. The computer for the holodeck was however set to alert me so I could patch in in case somebody wanted something.

"Yes, Commander?"

"Come in here for a moment?"

Connecting to the holodeck systems fully, I formed a avatar before looking around. The program was simply known as Janeway 231-A.

The inside was much more descriptive. A old English house in Victorian style, fireplace, old furniture that looked somewhat new, lots of dark wood. Book shelves. The sun was streaming in through the half open window.

"Commander," I said with a smile. Commander Janeway was wearing a period accurate dress and was standing by the couch. I looked around and then down on myself for a second before sending the holodeck system a command, changing my current avatar to fit in better.

A second later I regretted that decision as I was introduced to the concept of a corset.
How the hell could people wear these!?

Janeway looked like she was trying not to smile at my apparent discomfort, "I believe there is a small problem with the holodeck," she instead said.

I frowned at that, running a level five diagnostic, "I'm not getting any errors, Commander."

She raised a eyebrow and pointed at the couch. I frowned and walked around it to look, seeing two young children dressed in period accurate outfits sitting there. However, there was something wrong...

"Ah," I finally said, "I take it they are not meant to be Denobulans."

"No. No they are not. And the program just gives me a error and shuts down when I tell it to change it."

I nodded. That should not be happening, but it sounded more like a software error than a hardware one.

"One second, I'll have a look," I said as I dug into the code of the program. A couple of seconds later, I found the issue.

"I see," I said, "The species files have been corrupted," before I grinned in amusement. "You are lucky in a way, they were one number off being Tholians. I assume everyone is meant to be human?"

Janeway gave me a look, "That would be period accurate, yes."

Oh, haha.

"Copying species file from another program, all other files checking out, including personality and physical features. That's why they look a bit mutated, not meant for Denobulans. Resetting program and..."

The holodeck shimmered, everything, including my avatar fading out for a second before it rebooted, "...and done!"

"Thank you, Star," Janeway said with a sigh, "I prefer to keep the content of this program as private as possible and not involve an engineering team."

I smiled at that, "Don't worry, Commander. If it's something I'm good at, it's keeping people's private business private, kind of a necessity in my position. Although, I have to admit I don't understand the need for corsets. I never knew they were 'this' uncomfortable."

That caused her to smile, "Period accurate," she said, "I'm not a fan either, but I want my period dramas to be accurate. Even if it come with a bit of backpain," before she shook her head in amusement. "And it's Kathryn."

"Sir?"

"We have served on the same ship for a long time, Star. We have effectively the same rank. I would like to think we are friends. When off duty, I'm Kathryn."

"...That's going to take some time getting used to."

"I imagine it will."

"Well... Kathryn..." Damn that felt strange, "I'll leave you to your holonovel."

"Thanks for the help."

"No problem."



AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Hmm?

What's that?

"Lieutenant, I am receiving a distress call." I informed Shran where he was sitting in the center seat. It was the middle of 'ship night' and he was pulling a second shift again. Anything for some time in 'The Chair' I suppose.

He looked up from his PADD with a frown. "Distance?"

"Three point two lightyears."

"On screen."

"...is is the Independent freighter 'Quick Buck' requesting assistance. Our warp drive is damaged and we are dead in the water. This is the..."

The message started to repeat so I shut the viewscreen off. "Should I divert our course?"

The meaning of the question was twofold and he knew it.

Should I wake the Commander or Captain? Shran was the senior officer on the bridge. He had the authority to order course changes. But if they didn't agree, he might end up in hot water.

Shran was silent for a long second before he nodded. "Divert course and open a channel."

It took them a few moments before they answered, revealing an older human man, short grey hair on his slightly balding head.

"I'm Lieutenant Shran of the USS Starseeker." Shran said. "We are responding to your distress call."

"Lieutenant," he answered and nodded. "Andrew Stonesward, Captain of the Quick Buck. Thank you, I was worried the wrong types would find us but we didn't have much choice since our warp coils blew."

"Do you have any injuries?"

Stonesward shook his head. "Thank the makers nobody was killed in the blast. We have some burns, but no permanent injuries. The worst damage was to engineering and our hydroponics bay, one deck up. I'm sending our damages now."

I put it up on Shran's armrest display, he looked at it for a moment before he nodded. "I think we might be able to do something to help, but we need to inspect the damage first. We will be with you in a about thirty hours."

"Thank you. Quick Buck, out."

"Star, do we have what they need in storage compared to their list?" Shran asked as he flicked through the list.

"Mostly. I believe that while the warpcoils we have stored can not be mounted directly, I think that they can be adapted to their system. They might not be able to get up to faster than warp two, but it will get them moving. The 'Quick Buck' is a heavy cargo carrier of 'Caterpillar' class, capable of shifting two hundred million metric tons. She is longer than a galaxy class by over fifty percent and significantly bulkier. Quite frankly, our parts are not big enough to really fit on her properly. So while we should be able to get her moving, it will be slow, even compared to her normal speeds."

He nodded, "Good. Inform engineering."

"Already on it."


XXXXXXXXXXX


I dropped out of warp a couple thousand kilometers from the Quick Buck and moved in under sublight as I scanned her.

Yep, engineering accident alright. She was on reserve power and leaking driveplasma.

And she was a big, ugly, beast. Consisting of three squished-together spheres, she lacked the elegant flowing shapes of most other Federation ships. She was a civilian design.

Her nacelles seemed almost... tiny... compared to the rest of her bulk. Even at peak power, it would take her almost ten minutes to form a warpfield able to move her. Her maximum speed was warp five and it would take her most of a day to reach it, her warpdrive built for efficiency rather than performance.

Hell, at peak efficiency, she used only slightly more antimatter than I did.

I slowly shifted position, taking a parallel orbit about hundred kilometers to her port side, feeling rather tiny next to her.

Rather silly compared to a Dyson Sphere, but for a ship, she was massive.... and someone had painted the poor thing forest green.

She looked like she was covered in moss.

Captain Mason leaned back in the center seat. "Star, your analysis?"

"Heavy damage to her engine section, but I'm not seeing any further danger to the ship and her course is clear. Her antimatter tanks are empty and somebody flushed her core. The safeties worked or we would be looking at debris right now. She is on fusion power only."

"Good. At least we don't have to try to pull that monster into a stable orbit around something."

"Captain, they are hailing us." I reported as I got a signal from the crippled ship. "They are ready to receive our engineering teams."

He nodded and pressed a button on his armrest. "Bridge to Engineering. Are the awayteams ready for transport?"

It didn't take long for Sleeman to answer him.

"Yes, sir. Just gathering the last parts now. Five minutes."

I would of course keep a transporter lock on all of them at all times and my avatar was already ready to go. They might need some heavy lifting.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"It's ready. Push it into place now," T'Ro said and shut down her hand welder and stepped back out of the way.

You would think Engineering on a ship this massive would be large. But no, it actually wasn't. Instead they had two small ones, one for each nacelle. They actually had two warpcores as well, one for each nacelle.

It was their port warpcoils that had blown and they didn't have the replacements for all the components.

I nodded and ducked into the narrow space as she pressed against the other wall, barely giving me enough room to squeeze inside and suddenly making me very happy to have a small female avatar instead of a bulky male.

For this, the narrow space was not actually a problem, more like an advantage. With the physical strength of my avatar, footing was the biggest problem. Strength is useless unless you can use it and while my avatar might be about six times as strong as a human, it didn't have any better footing or leverage.

I quickly checked the warpcoil over, "Are you sure this will fit?"

T'Ro nodded, "I modified it. But even then, it will be a narrow fit, it's not made for this kind of mounting. You need to force it into place."

Nodding, I put my shoulder and hands against it before putting my foot against the bulkhead behind us and pushing. It slowly shifted, scraping into place before I stepped back, "How's that?"

She pulled her tricorder and did a scan while shifting to look it over visually, "No damage... it's lined up good. I just need to weld it in place. Thank you."

"No problem," I answered and moved out of the way, climbing back out of the hole.

At least I was using the standard away team suit and wasn't wearing a skirt or this would have been a bit more embarrassing. Still, at least I was useful. Getting that thing into place manually would have been difficult and needing several jacks.

Actually, it was kind of funny. Physically, my avatar was the smallest person in the away team. T'Ro was the second shortest and she was a inch taller than me. The engineering crew on the freighter didn't know I was an AI so when I forced open a stuck hatch, their faces were pretty funny.

Sitting down on the edge of the manhole, I looked down, watching T'Ro work before I looked to the right at the Klingon in a grey engineering jumpsuit as he finished the welding, resealing a plasma conduit.

He noticed me watching him as he flipped his welding shield up, "What?"

"Sorry, I was just surprised to see a Klingon on a Federation freighter. I'm curious," I answered with a shrug. Tragas was actually the chief engineer and quite skilled. Hell, with the right parts, he and his small engineering crew would have been able to do this themselves.

With us helping, it was just a lot faster.

He grinned, "Not all Klingons are willing to fight and die for the false honor of the council."

"I take it you don't agree with them then?" I asked and got up, brushing the dust off my uniform. Yeah, this is getting put back into the replicator when we get back. There is no saving it.

You would think that something with as few moving parts as a ship engine room would not be full of grease, but you would be wrong. There was more of them that you would normally think and this stuff had a tendency to spread everywhere by contact unless you kept cleaning it up.

...There was normally a lot of cleaning going on.

Here though, a lot of those spaces had not been cleaned for months. A lot of dust had managed to gather.

"Let's just say I put more value on what I consider honorable than what honor they assign to me."

...Considering the Klingons I met so far, I couldn't help but think he had the right idea.

I nodded, "None of my business. If it works for you."

"Your curiosity is understandable," he said and shook his head. "Most Klingons find more honor in destruction than creation."

"I'm finished," T'Ro reported and I quickly got up out of the way before helping pull her back up on the deck.

She gave me a nod in thanks before turning to Tragas, "That was the last warp coil. We should be ready for the first engine tests as soon as my team finishes going over the command pathways."

"As soon as those are done, we can transfer some of our antimatter to the Quick Buck," I continued, crossing my arms, "...I hate shifting antimatter around. It's fine as soon as it's actually inside a ship, but actually moving it between vessels?"

"Nobody like working with antimatter. Not if you have anything in your head," Tragas grumbled before wandering off. "Now where did that lazy Tellarite go with my tricorder? Colv! Where are you?!"

I shared a look with T'Ro before shrugging.

Civilians. Klingons. Traders.

Take your pick.

T'Ro shook her head and folded her tricorder up, putting it back in her belt, "What time is it?"

"About time to beam back," I answered, "At least if we want to have time to grab a shower before the dinner."

Captain Stonesward had invited Captain Mason and his senior staff to a get together as a thank you for coming to their rescue.

I guess that could be nice and all.

T'Ro nodded, "Yes. Just let me just check the status of the rest of the team to make sure they don't have any problems first."

"Sure thing."




AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

I crossed my arms, looking out through the window at myself where I was floating a couple of kilometers from the Quick Buck.

This was actually the first real opportunity I had to wear my dress uniform. Black and teal with a slightly longer skirt, it was actually quite nice. I was even wearing both of my rank markings, one for Lieutenant and one for Starship, on each side of my neck.

I even let Rachel do a quick...thing...to my hair. I had no idea what it was called, but it kind of lifted the sides up and across before down on the other side towards the rear into a braid.

What bothered me, was the high heels. Who the hell invented those things and what sort of death was he sentenced to for his crime? Whatever it was, it was insufficiently cruel.

Even so, the dinner had been quite nice. I even ate so I didn't stand out too much. I could, I just normally didn't. It did nothing for me, but at least I had the systems to automatically compact it so I could beam the waste out and into the trash later. There were other ways to get rid of it, but that was the easiest one. Not to mention cleanest.

Say what you want about these Independent traders though, they sure lived in luxury. There was clearly not a lack of space.

Fifty people crew on a ship larger than a Galaxy Class cruiser... even if almost all of it was cargo or engineering systems, they clearly didn't worry overly much about using a tiny sliver of that space for crew quarters.

In this case, a tiny sliver ended up giving each crewmember or family a full sized apartment. The most junior member of the crew, a trainee, had quarters larger than Captain Mason and Commander Janeway.

Combined.

The place was hardly spartan either. Hell, even though this was the 'Messhall' onboard, it was nicely decorated with plants, paintings. Nice murals on the walls and real high quality furniture. Real too, not replicated.

Still, as nice as her living sections might be, the Luna class was really beautiful. I zoomed in on my avatar where I was standing in the window.

Not that my avatar didn't look pretty great as well. Might seem narcissistic, but it was true. T'Ro really knew what she was doing.

I really needed to do something special for her at some point for that. I guess I could get her a new chessboard or something, but that felt really not significant enough.

Maybe some jewelry? Oh, that's a good idea. Like a necklace.

I should be able to pick something up when we visit Deep Space Nine. I didn't want to replicate something. There was something special with actual crafted items and not just replicated copies.

"Enjoying yourself, Star?" Commander Janeway asked as she walked up next to me, looking out at the stars.

"Yes, Ma'am," I answered, nodding. "Though I admit, I didn't quite expect a merchant ship to be quite this luxurious."

"If there is anyone that spend more time than us onboard of ships, it's merchant shippers," she answered, holding a glass of wine in her hand, sipping at the red liquid. "Long routes, no away teams. Very little time actually spent at planets. Several months spent in deep space. This isn't just a ship, it's their home. Just like the Starseeker is ours."

I smiled softly at that, looking at where I was floating in space. Home.

Yes.

"I did get some ideas for my quarters even.... Are we allowed murals?" I asked with a small thoughtful frown while digging into the book on regulations.

Janeway shrugged, "I don't see why not if you can make it fit. Just check that the paint don't have a bad reaction to the life support system."

"Thank you, Ma'am. Now I just need to find somebody to actually paint it. I have the artistic skill of a particularly stupid pumpkin."

She grinned at that. "I wouldn't say that, I have played some of your holonovels."

I shrugged. "That's just story telling and knowing how to talk to the holodeck computer to get it to do what I want. I'm talking about actual artistic skill, like painting."

Seriously, I had computer assistance and I could still mess up stick figures. It was kind of embarrassing.

She shook her head. "I'm sure you will be able to find someone able to do it," she said before she looked to the side. "But I better go see what Alexander want."

I nodded and turned back to the window with a smile.

A mural of a bird with its wings spread against the clear blue skies...that would look nice.

Turning my back to the window, I took in the group. Shran was in the corner, flirting with a woman in her early twenties. Someone who I think might be Captain Stonesward's daughter.

...He is going to get in trouble again, isn't he?

Well, he knew what he was doing. He did look rather smug when he returned from the date with that nurse back on ESD.

...As embarrassing as it was, maybe I should ask him for advice or something.

Captain Mason gave me a small wave to join him, Janeway and Stonesward so I nodded and started to cross the room, moving past the tables when I was stopped. "Hey, Trill girl." A guy in his early thirties with short cut brow hair asked, "While you are up and about, how about you get me another drink?"

I did a check of the crew manifest and got a quick match. Jason Stonesward, cargo master and cousin of the captain of the Quick Buck.

For a quarter of a second I thought about telling him to get it himself but...be diplomatic. Besides, it was four meters away and would take like three seconds. It would take longer to tell him to get it himself.

"Sure, what do you want?"

"Beer. Thanks, sweetheart," he answered with a grin before he gave my rear a smack.

"...!"



AN// Many thanks to Rastamon for betaing this part.

 

[Hiver]

"I'm sorry, Ship, but I can't simply let the matter drop," Captain Mason said, "I know you were provoked but the fact is that you broke the man's arm in four places."

I nodded and forced myself to not look away, "..Yes sir."

He sighed and shook his head, "I'm not putting it in your file and confining your avatar to your quarters would do nothing, but your replicator and holodeck privileges are revoked until we reach Deep Space Nine."

"Yes sir."

"Rest assured though that I will get to the bottom of this. Dismissed."

"Wait," Captain Stoneswards said and shook his head, getting up from the couch under the window of Captain Masons ready room and sighing. "I always knew my idiot cousin would get himself in trouble. Maybe this will be a wakeup call. I would like to apologize for what he did."

"Apology accepted, sir," I answered him, "I would like to apologize as well. I... over reacted." before I nodded to my Captain, "Sir," and had my avatar leave for my quarters.

Stoneswards shook his head and turned to Mason after my avatar left, "So hard to remember that is a computer."

"Not just a computer," Mason answered, "We should be ready to load you with enough antimatter tomorrow to get you to Starbase twenty six, assuming all diagnostics show up clear."

The punishment was the smallest part of it. Honestly, only the holodeck one was even really relevant. What was worse was the feeling that I had disappointed Captain Mason.

I really did overreact. I was trained better than that, damn it. I should have just slapped him.

Stoneswards nodded, "Good. As soon as we are loaded, we will be out of your hair. Now if you excuse me, I need to go yell at my cousin. I think perhaps scrubbing the second cargohold by hand for the next month or so should make sure this particular lesson sticks with him."

Mason nodded as Stoneswards left the ready room to be escorted to the transporter room by Crewman Daniels.

"Star?" Mason asked as he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling, putting his arms behind his head, "Why?"

"Sir?"

"Why did you feel the need to break his arm? Even ignoring the enhanced strength of your avatar, you are significantly more skilled than that. I know you practice with Lieutenant Shran."

I hesitated for a second. Why did I react so strongly?

"I... didn't think about it, sir. I was surprised and grabbed his arm and twisted it away."

He slowly nodded, "I certainly understand the sentiment. But you can't react like that. What if it was a diplomatic envoy or a alien diplomat? That's the reason I have to give you some kind of reprimand for it. There is a reason the rules say to allow a superior officer to handle the matter."

...That was a really good point actually.

What if he had been the ambassador to a alien species? That could have caused a major diplomatic incident. I should have ignored him and gone to my commanding officer like the rules said.

"...You don't need to explain yourself sir. You are my commanding officer and Captain."

Mason smiled slightly, "I know. But I want you to understand my reasoning."

"I do, Sir. I know I did wrong. I'm sorry."


XXXXXXXXXXX


I watched as the freighter slowly formed it's warp bubble and started to move, its course set for Starbase twenty six. It would take them a month or so to get there, but they should be able to make it.

The loading of their antimatter happened without any surprises, the way I liked it when it came to antimatter. We simply shifted one of our antimatter pods to their ship, it was the safest way to do it. We would need to get a new one loaded in when we reached Deep Space Nine.

"The ISS Quick Buck just entered warp," I reported as they reached FTL speed.

Mason nodded, "Good. Keep a eye on them as far as you can. Set a course for Deep Space Nine and engage. Maximum cruise."

I slowly swung around and punched up to full impulse, "Course plotted. Ready to engage at your orders."

"Activate."

I folded space and entered warp, accelerating to Warp Seven point Five while throwing Shran across the gym and he hit the ground, rolling back onto his feet.

"Good catch."

I grinned and brushed my hands together before reaching back to check the hairtie keeping the end of my braid together, "You are distracted. Thinking of that... What was her name? Anna?"

"Hannah. Which you know, you have their personnel list." He grumbled and headed over to his water bottle.

"Strike out?" I asked and crossed my arms.

"There was a bit of a distraction."

I nodded. The sound of snapping bone and screams of pain would kind of kill the mood, "...Yeah. Sorry about that."

He shook his head and put the bottle back down, "Not your fault. If you had not, I would have slugged him for it. Nobody treats my friends like that."

"I'm actually glad you didn't," I sighed. "It's bad enough that I ended up getting into trouble for it without pulling you into it as well."

Shran shrugged, "Would have been worth it."




AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

I looked up at the grey ceiling of T'Ro's quarters, my arms behind my head.

We were a couple of days out from Deep Space Nine and traffic had started to pick up. I had five other ships in sensor range, all of them commercial shipping and I could see ripples in Subspace from warpdrives further away, the ships themselves being too far away for me to really pinpoint.

Bajor had gotten busy since I was there last. Good for them.

Turning my head, I looked across her quarters at where T'Ro was laying on the bed, reading on her PADD. I had taken up residence on her couch for now, keeping her company.

"So what are you reading?"

She glanced up and over at me before returning to her PADD. "A mystery novel. A human book following a character called 'Sherlock Holmes'. He seems to work for law enforcement."

I grinned at that. "I didn't know you liked mystery novels."

"Neither did I. Rachel recommended it."

"Like it then?"

T'Ro nodded. "I believe I do. It's like a puzzle. The trick is figuring out who it is before the characters."

"When you are finished with it, I do have some holo novels with the same sort of theme if you want. My ban from the holodecks will be over in a couple of days."

She nodded. "That sounds agreeable. I expect it to be quite different when not in a book."

I noticed something and frowned thoughtfully. "And speaking of Rachel... do you think there might be something between her and Shran?"

That caused T'Ro to put her PADD down to raise a eyebrow at me. "I thought you didn't gossip?"

"I don't, I'm speculating." I answered as Rachel headed into Shran's quarters, his privacy switch still set to 'on'. "They have just been spending a lot of time together in each other's quarters with the sensors turned off."

She frowned in thought. "...Are you sure? I believe they would tell us if they were dating. And we have both seen Shran flirt with other girls during that timeframe. With Rachel present, I might add..."

I frowned at that and then nodded. "Yeah, you are probably right. Shran wouldn't do that."

She had another very good point, there was no way they wouldn't tell us about it either.

"So, have any plans for when we arrive at the station?" I asked after a moment, causing her to put her PADD back down and give me a Look. "...Sorry." I quickly added.

T'Ro sighed and shook her head. "I don't have any plans yet, not on the station. I had planned to visit several places on the planet itself. Among others I had planned to look into their records if possible. I am interested in seeing what they have on the old 'light ships'."

Bajor might technically had been warp capable by the time the Cardassians rolled over them, they didn't really travel outside of their system and a lot of their civilian traffic used 'light ships'. It was basically sailing ships that instead of wind or light, used the subspace currents for propulsion. While it had about a quarter impulse at best and relied on very fragile 'sails' that also functioned as solar collectors... it was effectively 'free' and made for very light ships. By the time the Cardassians took them over, they had mostly fallen out of favor, though, in favor of more traditional impulse drives.

Hell, some of the smaller earlier ones was actually made from a very solid kind of wood! Well, at least the superstructure and hull.

"Mind if I tag along? I had planned to visit the beaches, I heard some of them are pretty amazing, but that sounds interesting."

"Of course. We should have time for both." She answered with a a thoughtful frown. "But you don't have the range for your avatar from the station."

"I asked Captain Mason. He said we could orbit Bajor instead, staying out of Deep Space Nine after a couple of days at the station. Most of the crew want their shore leave on planet anyway."

"It's a plan then."

I nodded and looked up at her ceiling again. One of the freighters had started to drift closer to our course.

Bajoran light freighter 'Glorious Light' according to their transponder.

I hailed them for their flightpath and cargo manifest. They were technically in Federation space now, even if we were close to the border of Bajoran space.

My scans, at this at this distance, showed exactly what their manifest said so I wished them safe flying and continued on towards Bajor.

While 'border control' was not exactly our mission, it was a good habit to get into. Who know, we might run into a smuggler at some point.

"You know..." I turned my head and eyed T'Ro again. She was wearing one of her off duty outfits, a light grey pajamas.

Looked really good on her actually. She always was beautiful, but it made her look rather... cute. She would likely glare at me if I ever called her that, though.

Maybe I should get something similar too, looked comfortable. Vulcan silk according to my scans.

"Hmm?" She asked and glanced up from her PADD again.

"I think longer hair would suit you."

T'Ro frowned faintly and reached up to touch her hair. "You think so? I used to wear it longer before joining the Academy."

"Why change it?"

"It was getting in the way during my preliminary engineering training before applying. This is more practical." She said and let go of her shoulder-length hair.

"Could braid it when on duty. I do when I need my avatar to move around a lot and a ponytail isn't enough."

She looked thoughtful and touched her hair again before nodding. "I will consider it."




AN// A bucket of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Tomorrows part today as I will be unable to post it tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

"Bajor Control, this is the USS Starseeker. Requesting permission to enter Bajor space."

The Bajor system really had flourished since the war with the Dominion. They were the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant. They were also quite far from the front during the war with the Romulans.

While Deep Space Nine was still run by Starfleet, Bajor was not a Federation world. They wanted to keep independent.

I had to admit they had a pretty good deal there. The Federation was involved enough to make it very, very, stupid for somebody like the Cardassians to mess with them and they weren't as limited by Federation laws.

"USS Starseeker, this is Bajor control. Permission granted. We have your destination logged as Deep Space Nine?"

"Affirmative, Bajor Control." I answered, doing scans of the system.

There was unusual amounts of traffic going on, especially around Bajor itself. Last time we were here, I was a shuttle, but I could see that far.

Deep Space Nine also looked busy. There was only one ship permanently stationed there for security, the Defiant, but another two Federation cruisers were currently docked.

I could also pick out over twenty other ships, from Federation freighters to... was that a Cardassian Galor class cruiser?

Wonder what caused Bajor to admit one of those to their space?

"Captain, we are approaching Deep Space Nine. Five minutes until arrival." I reported, crossing my arms, "This place sure has turned busy since I was here last." I then said, bringing Deep Space Nine and the surrounding ships up on the main viewscreen.

Mason nodded, "Bajor has been booming. I do hope the station has room for the crew to get shore leave. After we leave, we won't be back in Federation space for another two years."

Janeway smiled, "If not Deep Space Nine, there is always Bajor itself."

"There is. If there is time, I would like to visit it myself." I said, "I didn't last time and I kind of regret it."

"You have the range for that?" Shran asked from tactical, bringing up my passive scans of the Galor.

I shook my head as I dropped out of warp, "No. Not from the station... I would have to get into orbit or at least closer."

Captain Mason smiled and leaned back in his chair, looking at the station taking up much of the viewscreen, "It's a full two weeks of leave. There is no reason the ship have to stay around the station, we could easily be in orbit around the planet for the majority of the time. I figure a couple of days at the station and then we could spend the rest around the planet itself. We can have another antimatter tank delivered on the way."

By the time everyone had finished speaking, I had gotten my permission and was already heading for a parking location a couple of kilometers of the station.


XXXXXX


"Star, did you plan this?!"

I raised a eyebrow at Gates first words after answering his hail, "What are you on about? And hello to you to."

His image sighed and then shook his head, running his hand through his short brown hair, "... Sorry. Just a bit stressed. The Federation Council finally got around to the actual bureaucracy about inducting a minor species into the Federation and getting us a seat on the council."

I frowned at him, "So what's the problem? They said they were going to expedite the process because of the treaty."

They were actually skipping several steps, such as years of research into the culture of the civilization in question.

"They are! That make it worse! This is the expedited version and I am 'drowning' in paperwork."

"...Really?"

He sighed, "Yes. While you were out of contact, the rest voted me as 'ambassador' as I would be staying in system and I'm the only 'adult' here! All that stuff that is normally spread through the government of a new species? That 'all' goes to me. I don't even know what to put as our homeworld and species name yet! What kind of government do we have?"

I looked at him for a moment before I shrugged, "How would I know? Closest would be... uhm... direct democracy or maybe social anarchism? I don't know."

"How do you think I feel about it? The documents have no box for 'not applicable'." he sighed, "At least I have the rest brainstorming for what we will be called and I put 'Jupiter' down as our homeworld. Closest thing at least."

I chuckled and shook my head, "Here, I have something to cheer you up. Take a look at this." I told him with a grin before sending over the full sensor recording the inside of the Dyson sphere.

It took a couple of seconds to transfer the data before he smiled widely, "Wow..."

"I know, right!" I said with a smile, "So what else is up with you?"

He shrugged, "Well... I have a new hobby?"

"Oh?"

Gates nodded, "Rocketry."

..."Rocketry?"

"Yeah. I met some historians and we got talking. We plan to build an exact replica of the Phoenix in a couple of years after some test launches with smaller rockets. In two years, we plan to recreate Zefram Cochrane's famous flight on First Contact Day."

"Wow..."

That was actually pretty damn cool.

He nodded again, "If everything go well, we might even look into recreating Apollo 11. That's one good thing about staying in one system, you can do cool stuff like that."

"So I see."

Gates smiled and shook his head, "So, anything new with you?"

I grimaced and then nodded, "Yeah... I kind of got in trouble a bit..."




AN// Many thanks to Jalinth for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Oooh," I said with a grin, leaning back in my seat.

T'Ro sipped her extra strong coffee and raised a eyebrow at me, "The Wormhole opened?" she guessed.

I nodded and kept watching it with my real sensors, "It's so beautiful. Even more so than when I was a shuttle last time, my sensors were not as good. Going through it is going to be amazing."

Hell, it was the main tourist attraction on the station and no wonder. It was one of the most beautiful sights in the sector... even just using normal human frequencies.

Being able to see it how it truly was, a whirling, expanding spacetime vortex giving off neutrons and blossoming out through subspace was...

I did a full recording of it opening and started to compress it for transmission to the others.

"It is a most impressive sight." T'Ro said and put her cup down on the table, "Though, I suspect it is significantly more so for you."

"...I wish I could show you how I see it. You would love it."

She did a half shrug, "It is more than likely. However, the closest I could get to the way you can see things require significant cybernetic implants."

I smiled, "A bit far to go to look at a stellar phenomenon?"

"Indeed. I'll have to make do with my eyes and sensor readings."

Before we were able to get any further, we were interrupted by a Ferengi carrying a tray, "Ladies, can I interest you in anything else? Perhaps a meal? We serve real fresh Hasperat, imported directly from Bajor. Made with real ingredients, nothing replicated."

"No thank you," T'Ro answered him, "I believe we have everything we require."

That caused him to turn to me, "Perhaps a drink?"

I smiled and shook my head.

Honestly, as slimy as Ferengi normally were, there was something a bit refreshing about people acting a bit capitalist at times. Reminded me a bit of back in the sim, even if people were not quite as bad back then. Besides, visiting Quark's was a kind of a tradition, even if was only the second time to the station.

"No thank you, I don't eat," I told him to his slight confusion. Well, technically my avatar could. Hell, I could even use the water to power it's fuelcell. But I didn't need to. "Actually, I would be more than happy to take a look at what holoprograms you have for sale though."

He got over his confusion quickly and gave me a pointy toothed smile, "I'll be right back with our selection."

I turned back to T'Ro to find her watching me.

"What?"

"I fail to understand why you purchase holonovels at any opportunity. We have several thousand already loaded in the holodecks memory. You write your own even."

I grinned at that, "Exactly! While the quality can be dubious at times, there are some shining diamonds. Remember that program of flying human World War Two Spitfires against the German's attack aircraft? I got that one here."

"A rather simplistic program, at least when it comes to a story perspective."

"Sure, but it also takes quite a lot of skill and it's fun! Come on, don't tell me you didn't enjoy learning to fly one of those."

She picked her cup up again, "It was a interesting challenge. Very well, you have a good point. However, we already do have several thousand programs already in the database."

"And we are going to be away for two years without any updates. I hate running out of programs."

We would basically be out of com range with Starfleet for two years. Subspace was not instant, even if it was very, very fast and had a rather long range. But the only reason you could make a real time call between Earth and say... Bajor... was repeating communication satellites and outposts spread across the entire Federation to renew the strength of the signals. Otherwise they just got lost in the normal subspace turbulence after a bit.

All the way to the gamma quadrant? Nope, not happening.

"Here you go." The Ferengi said as he returned, putting a PADD on the table before me, "Each program is listed by name and with a short description. If you wish to try a program before you purchase it, it is possible to book a holosuit for a small additional fee."

"Thank you," I answered with a smile, picking the PADD up to thumb through the selection.

Hmm, they did have quite a few new ones since I was here last.

"I think I'll take this murder mystery. 'Silence at station forty three'," I finally told him before I pulled a strip of gold pressed latinum from my belt, "One strip I believe the price was."

Bet T'Ro might enjoy that one as well. She did like that book before.

"Ah, I see you have been here before. Strange, I'm sure I would recognize a individual such as yourself."

"'I' haven't," I said with a smile before offering the PADD to T'Ro who shook her head and took a big sip from her coffee.

"Very well. I'll be right back with your program," He said and left for the bar.

"So what do you have planned now?" I asked, turning back to T'Ro as she put her empty cup of coffee down.

She shook her head, giving me a disapproving look before she answered, "I have no current plans, not until we leave for Bajor. Do you have any ideas?"

I crossed my arms thoughtfully, "Not sure. Want to take a walk around the station? I heard their Arboretum is quite nice. We could have a look around, see if we find something fun."

"That sound agreeable. As long as we avoid the Klingon restaurant."

"Deal," I said with a grin. "But first..." I then added and reached to pull a small box from my carrying pouch in my belt, "A gift. For you."

T'Ro looked surprised as she took it, "A gift?"

I nodded, "You have done a lot for me. Helped me with my avatar and everything... It's just a small thing, but..." I shrugged one shoulder, "Just wanted to give you something. To show my appreciation for my best friend."

There were times I wished...

But I shouldn't think like that.

She opened it, revealing a gold and silver necklace with a simple flower pendant, the petals made of blue crystal.

"It's beautiful."



AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.